Tomb Raider rises from the grave

In the late Nineties, Tomb Raider reigned supreme.
Backflipping through ancient ruins, attacking grizzly bears with
dual pistols and pulling giant but improbably lightweight stone
blocks in her wake, for a time the impossibly buxom Lara Croft
outshone even Sonic and Mario as gaming's pre-eminent pop-cultural
icon (with two dreadful Angelina Jolie films as proof). But then,
after a few dreadful sequels - Angel Of Darkness, anyone?
- Lara all but disappeared.

That is, until now. After years in development, Crystal Dynamics
have redesigned the franchise from top to bottom and the resultant
reboot - simply titled Tomb Raider - isn't just the best
Raider game in a decade, it's the best in the series.
Firstly, Lara has had a major makeover for 2013: gone are the
hotpants and unlikely proportions, replaced with a plummy-voiced
archaeology graduate, shipwrecked on a mysterious
Lost-style island, complete with its own insane religious
cult.

The classic Tomb Raider gameplay has also had a
facelift; while you'll still be fighting off wildlife and solving
subterranean puzzles, the focus is on survival - including hunting
deer with a bow and arrow for food, salvaging supplies from the
wrecked ship and exploring the island between campsites. It's
incredibly cinematic, whether crawling through torch lit caves or
evading a falling plane in one of the brilliant quick time events
(the best of their kind since Resident Evil 4). The
developers have also benefitted from the influence of recent games
like Assassin's Creed and Uncharted: while Lara starts off naïve
and fairly helpless, you'll quickly be traversing the island and
taking out enemies like a female Indiana Jones. Lara, it's
good to have you back.

Tomb Raider is out on 1 March on Xbox 360 and Playstation
3.

Oliver Franklin-Wallis

Oliver Franklin is Assistant Editor of Wired and a GQ contributor. Follow him on Twitter @olifranklin.